Uptown Tex-Mex takes chance on East Dallas locale with checkered past

An address in Lakewood with a rocky history has a new suitor willing to take a chance. It's the space at the corner of Mockingbird and Abrams, which was most recently occupied by Rex's Seafood, and it will become a branch of Manny's Tex-Mex, the restaurant at Lemmon and Oak Grove avenues.

Manny's is the concept founded by Manny Rios, who opened the original location in Uptown in 2005. Rios has family connections to some of the oldest Tex-Mex in town: Ana "Mama Mia" Enriquez, the matriarch behind Mia's Tex-Mex, which spawned much Tex-Mex restaurant action in Dallas, is his sister.

A Manny's spokesperson confirmed they would be opening a branch there "soon," even despite the lack of success the previous two tenants have enjoyed. Rex's was locked out after less than a year in the space. And the previous restaurant, Genaro's, which represented an ambitious comeback for restaurant old-timer Genaro Silva, closed unceremoniously within a year.

But Rios has never been afraid to open, and then close, other branches, depending on how business goes. In 2014, he shut down a Manny's in Addison and relocated it to near-Richardson, at the corner of Coit and Campbell roads.

If it's chips and queso you want, there's are options at the intersection where Manny's will open, with a ZuZu Handmade Mexican Food and the recent opening of Meso Maya. But neither of those are old-school brisket taco Tex-Mex.

He's also planning to open a branch in Southlake at Wyndham Plaza later this year. There's another Manny's Tex-Mex in Frisco, but it has a different owner.